LONDON - Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chief, has "turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness" to the phone-hacking in his companies and publications, said a report from British House of Commons released on Tuesday.

The 125-page report further concluded that Murdoch was "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company."

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee drew the conclusion after questioning journalists and senior personnel from the already closed News of the World, as well as police, lawyers and victims of the scandal.

However, the result was not endorsed by Conservative Party members in the committee, who labeled the report as "partisan."

The News Corporation said in a statement that it "fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologizes to everyone whose privacy was invaded," but refused to respond to the report for the time being.

News of the World, a subsidiary of the News Corp, was forced to close last summer as the phone-hacking scandal broke out, followed by the inquiry of the committee of MPs which began in July.

It was estimated that number of victims of phone-hacking could be as many as 4,000 and the investigation is expected to last a long time.